Hungry on the Island

ENLARGE

Islanders forward Kyle Okposo has been a revelation so far in the playoffs.
Associated Press

By

Dave Caldwell

May 7, 2013 8:53 p.m. ET

UNIONDALE, N.Y.—About two months before he slammed his right fist into the face of Matt Niskanen, bloodying the Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman, Islanders right wing Kyle Okposo decided he'd had enough with the way he was doing his job.

"I was pretty mediocre for the first month and a half of the season," Okposo said Tuesday, before the Islanders resumed their Stanley Cup playoff series in the evening against the Penguins at Nassau Coliseum. "I just made a really conscious effort to change that…And it's paid off."

Indeed, Okposo has been the Islanders' best player through the first three games of this surprisingly competitive series, which Pittsburgh led 2-1 entering Tuesday.

According to the website hockey-fights.com, which judges NHL fights, Okposo won that fight in Game 2 Friday, his first in five years in the league. He scored the winning goal that night in the Islanders' 4-3 victory. And he scored a short-handed goal in the Islanders' 5-4 overtime loss in Game 3 Sunday.

It has been seven years since the Islanders had used their first-round draft pick, the seventh overall, to take Okposo, a native of St. Paul, Minn., whose father, Kome, emigrated from Nigeria when he was 16. It has taken a while, but the 212-pound Okposo has emerged as a force.

"You feel like when he gets the puck, no one's going to take it away from him," said John Tavares, whom the Islanders took with the top pick in the 2009 draft. "He's attacking the net really well. He's not waiting for plays to happen. He's going after it. He's initiating plays."

Okposo, a 25-year-old forward, finished the 48-game regular season with just four goals, a drop from last season, when he scored 24 goals in 79 games. But Okposo had only one goal and four assists after the first 20 games this year. He had three goals and 16 assists in his last 28 games.

Okposo clicked on a line that included center Frans Nielsen and left wing Josh Bailey, another first-round draft choice, and he was even better after Islanders coach Jack Capuano switched Bailey and Matt Moulson for Game 2 against the Penguins.

In that game, Niskanen had just driven Moulson to the ice with a check when Okposo challenged him to a fight. The Islanders scored 14 seconds later.

"We just kept rolling after that—a momentum-changer for sure," Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic said of the second-period fight. "Whether it was Kyle, or whoever usually doesn't drop the gloves very much, it shows how much they want to win, how they're stepping up for their teammates."

The supremely talented, top-seeded Penguins still are likely to win this series. As Capuano said Tuesday, "We've got to play almost perfect hockey to win hockey games against this club."

After a 5-0 loss in the series opener that Capuano still can't explain, the Islanders played two tough games against Pittsburgh, overcoming two-goal deficits in both. The Penguins won Sunday on a power-play goal in overtime after a questionable Islanders' penalty.

At even strength, through the first three games of the series, the two teams had scored seven goals apiece. "I think our guys have learned they can play with those guys," said Capuano, who said his eighth-seeded team just has "to go out and keep battling and playing the game within our framework."

Okposo, an alternate captain with Tavares, is on board with that. After missing the playoffs the last six years, the Islanders are coming of age. Tavares has had a most-valuable-player-caliber season, but Okposo, Bailey and Nielsen, among others, are fulfilling expectations.

"I don't look at that stuff," Okposo said. "My expectations are higher than anyone else's. I know what I can do, and I want to be the best player I can. So I don't really look at anyone else's expectations."

Asked what the next step for this team would be, Okposo said, "Next step is to win the series. That's it."

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